A.W. (Arie) Janssen

Research interests

>>> Nederlands/Dutch

Between 1969 and 1997 I used to be the curator of Cainozoic Mollusca at the National Museum of Geology an Mineralogy (nowadays part of Naturalis, The Netherlands). Here I was, apart from editorial work for both Contributions to Tertiary and Quaternary Geology and Scripta Geologica, predominantly occupied with collecting and the study of benthic molluscs from the North Sea Basin and other European regions. During these years, the collection, already very significant for Indonesian fossil molluscs, was greatly enlarged, also with the help of many friends and colleagues.

Many papers on various subjects appeared from 1958 onwards (click here for a list starting 1969). From c. 1980 onwards I specialised more and more on fossil holoplanktonic Mollusca, the so-called Heteropoda and Pteropoda. What was started as a short-term project turned out to be a lifetime occupation. These planktonic snails have very interesting morphological, systematical, evolutionary, biogeographical and biostratigraphical aspects.

In 1997 I retired and moved, together with my wife Edith, to the Isle of Gozo (Malta). Ever since I have remained an active researcher, mostly dealing with holoplanktonic molluscs, but occasionally venturing back in the benthos as well.

You can read all about the beautiful planktonic snails, both fossil and Recent, as well as more details on my work on my own homepage.